Our Keepers Secret
by Jessica Dawn
Summary: An Alternate Universe. If James hadn't picked Peter as Secret Keeper... How may things have been different for everybody? Is Harry Potter even the chosen one? Things are definitely going to change... But is the world really a better place for it?


Suffice to say it had been a very long and stressful two weeks for the Potters. As soon as the prophecy had been spoken to Dumbledore, he'd summoned both the Longbottoms and Potters to the castle, wherein, they'd been told they'd need to go into hiding. There was no telling whether it would be Neville or Harry that the prophecy spoke of, this early on, but it was certain that it was one of the two young infants. Since that night, James had been wracking his brain to try and think of a place he could hide his family. He'd spent the time away from the auror office, and in his own study, looking over maps and using the knowledge he'd gained from work to try and think of any place that he'd be safe, with Lily and Harry.

Of course, Remus had been eager to help. James was the reason Remus had continued to survive after Hogwarts, in between his missions for the Order. It was apparent hat in their time of need, Remus had spent more time at Godric's Hollow than he had his own home in the passing days.

To say that Remus' eagerness was misinterpreted by one Sirius Black would be an understatement. In the passing weeks, Sirius had been adamant that the only reason Remus wanted to help the Potter's was to sell them out. Of course, he and James had exchanged their own words whenever this argument had arisen. James understood why Remus was being as helpful as he was, and not once did he misplace gthe trust he had in any of his friends.

It had crushed Remus to hear Sirius' accuse him of being a Death Eater. To hear him spit out the words 'filthy werewolf.' in such a tone of disgust that Sirius typically reserved for his blood relatives. The longer Remus dwelt on it, the more he became convinced that it was Sirius himself that was the Death Eater. He'd generally made himself scarce since hearing of the prophecy, and the fact that he was absent throughout the hours of poring over maps, and known Death Eater locations...

There had been one blowout argument that had resulted in Remus' storming out of James' home, and Sirius following rather quickly, apparating to his own flat, to make himself 'invisible' for several days. Both men had been highly offended by the other, but both held to their own logic.

It was the twenty-third of October when they'd come to their final decision. They would leave their own home, and go to the home that James had grown up in, and had been empty for some time. The only matter was that in a wizarding village, there was no telling who would be there, and so they'd decided to make use of the fidelius charm, and take on a secret keeper. They'd come up with a short list of people that they felt they could trust enough with their lives in the balance, and the lfie of their infant son, and so, at midnight, they'd called those people to meet them at Hogwarts. Albus Dumbledore had graciously offered the use of his office for the meeting, and come five minutes after, all parties that were needed had arrived.

Hestia Jones had been the first to arrive. She'd been Lily's best friend throughout school, though they'd rarely spent time together. Both had been caught up in their studies, and later, prefect duties. They'd been in different houses, which would further alienate them, when it came to things such as Quidditch matches, and the hosue cup, but nonetheless, they'd been blind to the public as best friends. This was something that played in their favour. Nobody would suspect Hestia for being their keeper.

Remus himself had arrived later, and as one of the infamous marauders, was it any surprise that he'd been in this room? He felt as though he owed his own life for James' and though the marauders would definitely have appearances on Voldemort's short list of people to kill, Remus had the added bonus that he didn't have work to report to, and was able to keep constantly on the move if he had to. It might not have been a benefit in life, but in these circumstances, they'd found an upside to his situation.

Sirius hadn't flooed in long after Remus had, only really a matter of seconds, and had shot the man a disgusted look, as though he'd honestly not expected him to be there. Sirius was James' best friend, and had eben best man at the wedding... He was Harry's Godfather, and one of the best Aurors in the last century... No doubt he'd be able to withstand anything Voldemort could throw at him... No doubt he could stand to the torture, and no doubt he would die for his friends and godson... But in James' eyes, he was more the obvious choice, and he didn't know if he could live knowing that he'd brought anything down upon Sirius, or any of his friends, really...

Peter had made his presence known a couple of minutes later, stumbling out of the fire as usual, giving everybody a slight chuckle. He was the wildcard. He'd always been the tagalong in their group at school, and even after, he seemed to simply follow people about. He was nervous, and fidgety (moreso after leaving the castle), and still lived with his mother. Certainly nobody would see the decision coming, trusting Peter Pettigrew with lives, but perhaps it was what was for the best...

Albus himself had been in their list... Who couldn't trust Dumbledore? The man was probably the smartest wizard of all time, and the head of the Order of the Phoenix... If they couldn't trust him, then who could they trust? Voldemort feared the man... But perhaps Dumbledore had already had a lot on his plate...

Those in the room had milled about until they'd found themselves comfortable. Hestia had taken Harry from Lily, playing with the toddler resting on her hip.Sirius and Remus situated themselves as far away from each other as had been possible, glares being thrown across the room everytime they made eye contact. Peter had remained somewhere clsoe to the fireplace, where James and Lily had taken up homage on Albus' desk. Albus himself simply stood off to one side, observing all of those in the room.

James had cleared his throat after a moment, glancing at Lily for her approval to begin their short meeting. Everybody present knew of the prophecy, and Lily knew she couldn't bring herself to actually verbalize their request. James would be the one to do that. At her nod, and realizing he had the attnetion of everybody present in the room, he began to speak.

"As you all know, a prophecy has been made... Potentially regarding Harry... It was suggested to us to go into hiding... And we've decided to follow that advice." He paused, his gaze landing on his son, who was beginning to fall asleep on Hestia's shoulder. He couldn't resist a smile, nudging Lily and gesturing to him, catching sightof the faint smile on her face. "But it's not enough for us just to hide... We'd be found, doubtlessly... Somebody would see us, and eventually Voldemort would know where we were." At the name, both Hestia and Peter had flinched, James had given a soft laugh at the sight of it before continuing on once more.

"We've chosen to make use of the fidelius charm... I've learned to cast it, and the only people that will be in the room when it is done, will be myself, and the person we choose as our secret keeper..."He'd trailed off here, making room for anything his friends might want to cut in with, and to ensure that none of them wanted to leave at this moment. It was a silent invitation, yet one by one everybody in the room nodded as if to say 'go on.'

And so James did, "You all understand just what this implies... Voldemort will come after you, anybody you love... Anything he can do to pinpoint us... Torture... Maim... _Kill._" And still, none of their friends left the room. One did, however, speak up.

"James," It was Sirius, whose gaze never quite met the other black haired man, and instead was coldly focussed on Lupin. "I can assure you that for _most_ of us in this room, it would be an honour and privelege to act as your secret keeper. Unfortunately, I don't think I can speak for us all."

And with those words the entire atmosphere of the room was soured, Remus perking up where he'd stood, leaning against one wall. He'd narrowed his gaze on Sirius, and shook his head slightly. "I'm tired of it Black. James knows that as long as he doesn't pick _you _they'll be safe. The only thing the Blacks have ever produced has been Death Eaters, and Gryffindor or not, you're no exception."

Sirius gave a snort of laughter, rolling his eyes. "If the worst thing you can think to do is accuse me of being a Death Eater... Insulting my family will get you nowhere, wolf."

Remus too rolled his eyes, looking away from Sirius, and taking a few paces around the room. "You're just going to wind up like Regulus. I could only hope that you'd get to die at one of our wands rather than some Dea-" But Remus hadn't even finished his statement before he'd found himself colliding with the floor. Sirius had lunged across the room, and now the two were rolling around on the floor, tangled in a flurry of fists and feet. Neither was particularly big on muggle dueling, but pparently this was what they had come to. Soon enough though, it had taken wands to separate them.

James had his trained on Sirius, while Dumbledore had taken Remus from the pureblood's fury. Lily on the other hand, had resorted to tears, Hestia (and Harry) as well as Peter had moved over to her. "Won't you two ever stop?!" Lily'd let out, gaze darting between the two who'd suffered full-body binds. Sirius had an eye that was quickly bruising up, and a split lip, while the only _visible _injury to Remus had been a gash above his right eye that was bleeding at a rate that didn't seem natural for such a small cut. Her green eyes had then landed on one of the rings Sirius wore, and pieced it all together.

"You both _seriously _need to grow up. We're in the middle of a war that will determine the fate of the world, and you two are caught up in a petty argument. I don't know what's happened to make you two go at each others throats, but you both need to get over it. We need as many allies as we can possibly have in this war, and at the rate the two of you are going, you'll have each other dead before anybody else got the chance." She shook her head, taking Harry from Hestia. "We've told you both many, _many _times, in the last two weeks alone, that we have complete faith in both of you, and it never seems to be good enough for either of you." Harry had begun to squirm in her grasp, and finally emitted a cry. Lily began to rub his back but he simply would not be soothed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go put my son to bed. It's far too late for him to be awake." She'd let out, anger drying from her voice, before moving to the fireplace and flooing back to her home.

Hestia'd given them both a look before quickly following behind Lily, wanting to ensure that she was okay.

James took the bind off of Sirius, and wordlessly followed behind his wife and son. Peter followed behind him, leaving Sirius, Dumbledore, and Remus (still in a full body bind) in the room. Sirius was next to leave, words pointless by now. Only after he'd left did Dumbledore release Remus, who gingerly got to his feet, favouring his left foot considerably. He'd turned to look at the headmaster, and nodded slightly, "I'm sorry for what happened here tonight. I'll do my best not to-"

"Mister Lupin... I'm sure you'll find that sometimes it is best to let the aggression out of our systems, rather than to bottle it in, until we can no longer take it." Dumbledore had spoke, and with a sweeipng gesture had motioned to the fireplace. Remus simply turned, and left.

---

Seventeen days later, the group of five had had the biggest shock of their lives, when the Dark Mark was found hovering over an apartment building on the outskirts of downtown London. To the Order, it was a big loss... The apartment had been filled with blood upon the arrival of Aurors, Sirius Black amongst them. Remus Lupin wasn't the only wizard living in the building, and Sirius had been mortified to find that the other was perfectly unharmed. It had been the shock of a lifetime to find the apartment door blasted off it's hinges, the floors, walls and furniture all covered in blood... His wand drawn, he shakily scouted out the once familiar apartment, but there was simply a feeling in the air that let him know it was empty.

Regardless of what their friendship had turned to in it's dying days, Sirius still wanted to believe Remus a friend, and the thoguht that something had happened to him before they'd had a chance to make good caused his stomach to turn. After a few minutes of being in the flat, and deeming it empty, he'd quickly left his responsibilities to the next highest rankign auror, and all of them knew just why Black had needed to leave.

As soon as he was away from the scene, he'd choked out a sob, needing to get the emotion out of him before he could even consider apparating home. The last thing he needed right now was to splinch himself. It had taken him a few minutes to shake the various images of what had possibly happened to Remus out of his mind before he could apparate back home, and leaned heavily against the wall, sliding down it, burying his face in his hands.

How could Remus be gone? By the looks of the apartment, it wasn't even as though it was a kidnapping either... That was a murder scene if Sirius had ever seen one before... And he'd been wrong about Remus... Remus hadn't been a Death Eater, he'd been perfectly innocent, and now he was one of their victims... The thought of it made Sirius retch, and then the an pulled himself fromt he spot, needing soembody to talk to. James was the first one to come to mind, and Sirius made a break for his bedroom. The mirrors they'd used throughout the summers would surely work... James had to have taken it wherever he was going... It wasn't as though Sirius could find him through it... Quickly Sirius picked it up from his bedside table and rapped on it's surface twice, hoarsely crying James' name into his own reflection.

It took a few minutes, and a few more calls, but just as Sirius had been ready to cast the mirror aside, his reflection melted into that of his bespectacled best friend, looking worriedly up at him from his lap. "Sirius, why are y-" James cut himself off at the sight of Sirius tearstained face, and disappeared from the mirror. not even a solid minute later, he stood in front of him, and knelt before him, looking him in the eyes, "Sirius, what happened? Are you alright?"

"James... M-..." Sirius couldn't bring himself to use the nickname... He wasn't worthy of using those nicknames anymore... Sirius had betrayed Remus... "Remus..."

James paled slightly... "What about Remus?"

"D-Dark Mark over his building... His apartment... I..." Sirius sat forward then, burying his head in his hands, openly crying, something James had honestly never seen him do before. "James... He can't have made it out... There's no way..." His voice cracked towards the end of his statement, and James sat down beside him on the bed. Sirius leaned into him, shaking as James wrapped an arm around him, an effort to comfort his friend that probably wasn't encouraging him very much.

James shook his head. "There's always a chance, Padfoot."

"Don't call me that!" Sirius interjected loudly, upset at the use of his nickname, pulling away from James and moving across the room, still shaking. "Just don't call me that."

It shocked James to hear Sirius say as such, but given what he'd just witnessed, James wasn't about to go out of his way to upset him. "Sirius... _We _cannot afford to jump to any conclusions..." He offered, even though he couldn't help but think it himself. Both men sat there in silence for some time as though trying to think of a way their friend could have made it out. It wasn't a few hours later that the owl had arrived, ministry seal holding the scroll closed, addressed to Sirius Black. He opened it and shook his head after reading the simple sentences it held.

James picked the parchment up off the table moments later, the silent invitation hanging between the two friends.

_Black;_

There's nothing left, sorry. Take the week off. Making an announcement tomorrow.

_Moody._

It was only at that that the two had begun to weep together.

---

And so ends part one. Part two will pick up either directly where this one leaves off, or after a slight time jump. Depends on which part I use. Must love interchangeable prewrites. Off to Classical Civilizations now.


End file.
